military gear to aid the assad regime, in the syrian civil war. >> this was equipment and ammunition that was being sent from a russian agency to the syrian defense ministry. this equipment is now being examined by relevant units. under no circumstances, can this and something like this happening on a passenger plane is a violation of international flights. >> warner: russian authorities had disputed earlier reports that military equipment was on board the plane. and moscow accused the turks of endangering the roughly 30 crew and passengers, many of them russian. the plane was allowed to fly on to damascus without the disputed cargo. but the syrian transport minister condemned turkey's actions. >> ( translated ): what happened could be described as turkish aero-piracy against a civilian syrian plane. they took with force a part of the shipment without giving any receipts. it's a kind of provocation that reflects a turkish political failure in its dealing with the syrian issue. >> warner: the turks have voiced repeated frustration that russia-- a major arms supplier to syria-- has blocked

arm rebels in syria with weapons that can defeat president bashir al assad's army. at a rally in florida, romney promised to be a strong international leader if elected. >> when i'm president i'll take the care it takes to rebuild our principles and restore the principles that made america strong. >> reporter: the republican nominee couldn't resist taking another shot at the president's debate performance. >> now of course days later we're hearing his excuses and next january we'll watch him leave the white house for the last time. >> reporter: romney and the president have two more debates cancelleded. later this week is the vice presidential debate. now the obama camp is dismissing the romney speech saying it's a third or fourth time to explain his global intentions. on a fundraising note the president raised $181 million last month. >> there are two presidential debates left in campaign 2012. but on thursday the vice presidential candidates go head-to-head. usually there's little attention paid to the debate between vp candidates who rarely play a role who wins the election bu

region are greatly affected by assad's brutal campaign, so we will continue to coordinate closely with our partners moving forward as we have in the past. >> u.s. boots on the ground right next to a war zone -- is this an escalation? >> it is not an escalation. it is working with a partner to deal with the impacts of assad's brutality. >> as you know, many of the administration's critics would like to see a more active role by these troops. >> our position on providing military legal assistance has not changed. it is our position that what is needed in syria is not more weapons. what is needed is a political transition. you note critics who seem to support taking some sort of harder, more militaristic line, but they will not come forward and draw any real distinctions from what they are proposing compared to what the president is doing. if someone in congress or elsewhere wants to suggest that the united states should engage militarily directly in syria, they should say so. the president's position is we need to continue to provide and manage humanitarian assistance to the syrian

freedom and he would do more to help the opposition against bashar al- assad. >> i'll work with our partners to identify and organize members of the opposition who share our whoes and then ensure that they obtain the arms they need to defeat assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. >> reporter: romney also delivered his harshest assessment yet of the ministstration's evolving response to the attacks in libya. assauls latest assault can't be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting islam-- despite the heministration's attempts to convince us of that for so long. no, as the administration has finally conceded, these attacks erat the deliberate work of terrorists. they use violence to impose violr dark ideology and others. >> reporter: romney has been critical of the way the eyesident has handled libya, he iticalted humanitarian aid when ibe president advocated that but esidenhe president last year called for qaddafi's ouster, scott, romney accused him of omneng ad hoc determinations and saying he didn't have a long- term strategy. >> pelley: as you might imagine, lo jan, the o

turk year. the remark is seen as a warning to syrian president, bashar al-assad to halt the cross border attacks. >> obviously, turkey has a right to defend herself. we have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend turkey. >> rasmussen said that the best way to stop the conflict. he called on turkey to show restraint. nato views an attack against a member country as attack on the alliance. members can jointly defend the country. nato leaders denied possibility of military interventions in syria. they have said it destabilize the region. >>> israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu says he will call a general election early next year. vote initially scheduled for late 2013. netanyahu said he was bringing the election forward, because the governing coalition failed to agree on spending cuts for next year's budget. he said the decision is for the ben fete of efit of israel. his likud party has strong public support. the prime minister has no major political rivals. early elections could help netanyahu consolidate power and stance against iran. government may take military

remove syria's president, bashar al-assad, by being an ally to the regime at the united nations and providing vital fuel to power assad's crackdown. indeed, as an aging fidel castro of cuba fades from visibility, chavez has supplanted him as the united states' nearest foe. and on the other side, running against chavez is david. for the first time, the typically fractured opposition has united around a challenger, henrique capriles radonski, a telegenic former governor of the populous state of miramba 18 years chavez's junior. >> ( translated ): and i say to the people of venezuela, you judge who is in the process of change and who has become sick from power, because he who is now in the palace has defrauded the venezuelan people. >> suarez: often clad in a baseball cap bearing venezuela's national colors, the redbull- drinking 40-year-old markets himself as a modern leftist, someone who can balance free market incentives with the country's social wfare programs, like brazil. and he's struck a chord. in february's primary, he took 64% of the more than three million votes cast among f

the share assad a reformer when he was putting guns on his own people. we should always standp fopeace, for democracy, for individual rights and we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts because what that does when we quiv kate on our values, when we show that we are fighting our own defense t makes us more weak t projects weakness. when we look weak our adversaries are much more will to -- >> with all due respect that is a bunch of malarkey. >> why is that so. >> not a single thing he said is accurate. first of all -- >> be specific. >> i will be very specific. number one, the lecture on embassy security, the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for, number one. so much for the embassy security piece. number two, governor romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed was out making a political statement that was panned by the media around the world. and this talk about this weakness, i don't understand what my friend's talking about here. we-- this is a president who has go

attacking their people. we should not have called bashar assad a reformer when he was turning his russian-provided guns on his own people. we should always stand up for peace, for democracy, for individual rights. and we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts because what that does when we equivocate on our values, it makes us more weak. it projects weakness, and when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us, and our allies -- biden: with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey. >> moderator: and why is that so? biden: not a single thing he said was accurate. >> moderator: be specific. biden: i will be very specific. number one, this lecture on embassy security, the congressman here cut security by $300 million below what we asked for, number one. so much for the embassy security piece. number two, governor romney -- before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world. and this talk about this weakness, i don't understand what my friend'

people to help force assad out of power a year after president obama said, we want assad out of power. he has substantive things to talk about on the debate stage when they debate foreign policy in two weeks and that ad is now irrelevant. >> don't you think this is a case of him saying, i'll do the things the president is trying to do but do them more effectively? >> there's a fair case to make and there's an opening for that. >> i agree. i'm not saying that's a bad thing. >> there's an opening the size of a pin drop. he didn't lay out his strategy for peace in israel. on iran, the best he could come up with was, i'm going to get tougher on iran because i'm going to have tougher sanctions. >> when barack obama came to office, he said, i'm not george w. bush, so therefore, i can negotiate with iran. >> he said he would open up all doors but he wasn't going to give you a seat at the table unless you wanted to come and talk peace. >> we have unsolicited advice on the other side of the break including helpful hints for donald trump. stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight con

comes to syria, assad does need to go. we need to work with moderates in opposition and provide them with military hardware and support financially so they can do battle. the citizens there, they are being slaughtered by the thousands. when it comes to libya, i thought what happened there is unacceptable. i thought the handling of it was unacceptable. we need to have a full and immediate investigation to make sure we find out what happened. more importantly, iran, my opponents said earlier we need a nuanced approach. there is no such thing. there is only one person who will stand with israel. >> another 30 seconds. >> i have three older brothers, all of whom served in the military. my oldest brother was career military. 288 combat missions he served in vietnam. i have some sense of not only how tough and capable they are. that is why i believe the best we can do for our military is be very careful and thoughtful about when we ask them to go to war. we need to have clear objectives. we need to know what our plan is and how we plan to get out. >> you can take up to 40. >> we have

. i think that's a significant red line. if the assad forces were to do that, i think that would precipitate much bigger crisis and draw from the united states. barring that or major attack on turkey, i think we're in a gruesome ugly stalemate. dagen: for how long? >> it could drag on for a year, two years, yes. connell: we mentioned at the top the impact on the presidential election here in the united states would be. you think it will be kind of status quo through november and beyond. >> i think so. again, providing the rebels with things like shoulder fire missiles that could take down the government's helicopter gunships, that would be potentially a game changer, but barring that, if we don't up the supply to the rebels they have enough to stay in the game but not enough to do a big kill on the assad government. dagen: what about the overall picture for oil production in the middle east? i mean you mentioned the outlook for iraq. but are we in this area where you think we'll be at $90 a barrel for months and months, maybe even years? >> you know, we look at next year and we s

, assad does need to go. we need to work with moderates in opposition and provide them with military hardware and support financially so they can do battle. the citizens there, they are being slaughtered by the thousands. when it comes to libya, i thought what happened there is unacceptable. i thought the handling of it was unacceptable. we need to have a full and immediate investigation to make sure we find out what happened. more importantly, iran, my opponents said earlier we need a nuanced approach. there is no such thing. there is only one person who will stand with israel. >> another 30 seconds. >> i have three older brothers, all of whom served in the military. my oldest brother was career military. he served in vietnam. i have some sense of not only how tough and capable they are. that is why i believe the best we can do for our military is be very careful and thoughtful about when we ask them to go to war. we need to have clear objectives. we need to know what our plan is and how we plan to get out. >> you can take up to 40. >> we have the greatest fighting force in the hist

men, women, and children have been massacred by the assad regime over the past 20 months. we can't support our friends and defeat our enemies in the middle east when our words are not backed up by deeds. i'll put the leaders of iran on notice that the united states and our friends and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. no friend of america will question our commitment to support them. no enemy that attacks america will question our resolve to defeat them. and no one anywhere, friend or foe, will doubt america's capability to back up our words. >> well, you got to wonder about that guy. we should have stayed longer in iraq, open-ended conflict in afghanistan. regardless of the fact we know little about them and onto iran and talks of a red line that almost guarantees conflict. if you want clarity in what a romney presidency would look like don't ask the candidates's own porn -- foreign policy. advisers say they have engaged with him so little on issues of national security they are uncertain what camp he would fall into and are uncertainly themselves

and iran still supporting assad, we have had this on going battle with probably over 20,000 civilians killed. what governor romney recommends in the speech -- in the speech is that we carefully select leaders in the opposition who we can trust and see if it is possible to support them. connell: but getting involved ourselves is not realistic, is it? i mean you support them by -- you give them arms is that what you are talking about, that kind of thing? >> right, providing assistance to those that we can identify and trust. you know, again for 18 months we haven't done that. if asked today, it would be hard to identify exactly who it would be that we could provide, even nonlethal assistance to that wouldn't result subsequently in internal bloodbath. connell: what i've picked up from romney today is a difference in tone a lot of it. if america does not lead that someone else will. that seems to be a theme throughout and then he goes through these different countries in the region, in the middle east one by one whether it's libya, egypt, we talked about syria, also mentions afghanistan.

provocative. what happens is whether it's the assad regime in syria or the ayatollahs in tehran. they look at a weak and inattentive president and recalibrate their policies to take advantage that weakness. those are what the concerns should be. megyn: president obama's reelection team ramming up their attacks on mitt romney. calling him dishonest, untruthful and coming out and saying he's a liar. sarah jones gave up her nfl cheerleading job to become a teacher. now she is a criminal defendant and about to make a plea after having sex with a teenaged student. now that federal government launched a program to fine hospitals if some patients return within 30 days of being released, we are going to speak to a doctor about how those fines might affect patient care. and everyone bottom line. >> we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy. [ mujahid ] there was a little bit of trepidation, not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working

has shown once again as assad's father did, now there are foreign fighters there are so-called jihadis that are coming to the country from rareas areas in the midst of the turmoil but by and large, and i was there a couple of week ago, i met with rep seb tis of and they are all vowing that it is, it is prop gan gada from the syrian government to suggest these are all al qaeda fighters and not in fact completely demoralized and, and now turning to violent citizens of the syrian, the republic. margaret is in kansas on democrat's line. hi, margaret. >> caller: good morning. i have been watching this with extreme unbelievable upsetness. it gets so little coverage. we have some coverage until, you know, journalists are getting killed then i have to watch bbc. i mean, it is ridiculous what is on our news. so i wrote a short poem, i will read it to "crimes against humanity: sins of omission delay and humanitarian rescues, body counts, mine count, witness to extreme suffering, leadership needed, if not indeed, in words, shouts them loud as the bomb, silence is lee that, syria bleeds to

opportunity to really get iran by getting assad. >> so, mike, we have heard this morning from politico that ann romney and tagg romney, great guy, by the way, starting to exert their influence and basically saying, hey, dad. move to the middle. we've seen you move to the middle on taxes saying, okay, i'm not going to cut taxes in a way that's going to raise the deficit. that's my rule. it's a hard, fast rule. he moved to the center on bipartisanship, on israel. i guess the question is, does that make him a more electable? i think it does. or does that make him the etch-a-sketch candidate? what's your read? >> well, i think that in addition to ann romney and his sons, i think there is an extended romney family within the campaign. people who have been with him throughout his career in politics. dating back to when he was governor of massachusetts. and i think they have been clambering for mitt romney to be more mitt romney than this right-wing creation we saw during the primaries, and i think they probably had a family conference at which point they thought, let's stop, you know, you pretend

rebels to defeat assad. romney said america much take a larger, stronger role in global politics. >> our friends and allies across the globe don't want less american leadership. they want more. >> romney also criticized the obama administration for failing to declare the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya a terrorist attack. >>> with his opponent surging in the polls, president obama is campaigning with new urgency. he told donors in san francisco that it was time to get, quote, almost obsessive in their efforts to lobby friends and relatives in battleground states, and he declared, i very much intend to win this election. >>> our other big story of the week, the deadly meningitis outbreak linked to a shipment of steroids is claiming more lives. now 105 confirmed cases stretching throughout the country in nine states. so far eight people have died. 13,000 more people may still be at risk. the steroids contaminated by a fungus were delivered to two dozen states. fungal meningitis is not contagious -- again, not contagious -- but those injected in the spine are most at risk. >>>